1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to printed matter and more particularly to the improved moving step article and method of making.
2. Background of the Invention
The history of printing started with the duplication of images around 3000 BC. It evolved from the use of round cylinder seals to impress clay tablets in Mesopotamia. Block printing on cloth preceded printing on paper, which became common by the mid 1400's. The origin of moveable type is credited to the Chinese around 1040, with metal moveable type appearing around 1230. These systems were not widely used due to the extensive set of characters. In 1439 the development of moveable type printing technology firmly established modern moveable type printing. Lithographic printing appeared in the late 1700's. Color printing, offset printing, screen printing, and flexography were further developments in the printing art. In the 1960's and 1970's, photocopiers, thermal, dot matrix, inkjet, and laser printers were introduced. The quality and desired appearance of the printed product is controlled by many criteria. A several considerations include printing press to be used and substrate type. Substrate determinations must consider the weight, density, opacity, paper grain, coating, moisture content, porosity and ink absorbency.
Coincident with the evolution and development of printing technology graphic design developments and improvements also progressed. Binding and finishing developments enhanced the appearance of the final primed product. The processes of cutting, collating, folding, and mechanical, chemical and thermal fastening enable the graphic designer to produce a wide variety of printed products. Many styles and designs of multi-page graphic design pieces have appeared. The uniqueness of print media styles provides an attraction to the viewer. This is especially true of advertising media, where each significant difference from the media produced by the advertiser's competition, provides an advertising advantage. Examples of these improvements include a brochure or card wherein upon opening the card, an interior portion of a card moves relative to the base card. A three dimensional variation of the movement effect includes so called “pop ups” whereby upon opening a folded card or brochure, a three dimensional pylon rises from the surface of the card, These effects are achieved through proper cutting folding and mounting and binding of the moveable piece or pylon on the interior surfaces of the card or brochure. Although these effects are well known to those skilled in the art, there still exists the challenge to produce print media pieces having unique motions or effects in order to achieve a competitive advantages over other print pieces.
There have been many in the prior art who have attempted to solve these problems with varying degrees of success. None, however completely satisfies the requirements for a complete solution to the aforestated problem. The following U.S. Patents are attempts of the prior art to solve this problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 864,894 to McPhee discloses a magazine card folder comprising a case of having a suitable back and cover joined together and a plurality of leaves formed of a length of suitable material arranged in folds. The folds form two sets of sections of different lengths and alternatively occur in the same length. The adjoining sections have their inner surfaces joined together to form leaves. The inner leaf is mounted on the back. Means engage the uppermost section and displaying the pages of the various leaves in turn, as and for the purpose specified.
U.S. Pat. No. 958,582 to Bodine discloses a signature for combination fashion and simple books comprising two or more pairs of stiff sheets joined together by binding tape to provide stitching and binding means. One or more flexible fashion sheet interleaves are interposed between each two pairs of thick sheets. Stitching threads extend through the stitching and binding tapes of the thick sheets and interposed flexible sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,415,429 to Ceuny discloses a display album having in combination a plurality of leaves, a pair of covers comprising rectangular frames hinged together and having, panels fitted therein to provide recesses at both the inner and outer sides of the covers. The construction being such that the inner recesses will receive the leaves and the inner faces of the frames will abut each other when the album is closed so that the edges of the leaves will then be entirely enclosed within the frames. An expandable binder secures the leaves to the covers. A thickened pedestal centrally located beneath the lower side of each frame firmly supports the album in upright position whether the same is opened or closed. A clasp positively secures the covers in close position.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,603,362 to Erskine discloses a receptacle display means comprising a series of foldable and expansible paper receptacles of varying site arranged one upon the other in face-to-face relation with the mouth portions of the receptacles contained in the same plane to facilitate individual expansion of the receptacles. The contacting sides of the receptacles are united for mutual support and to enable all of the receptacles to be expanded and collapsed in unison.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,105,696 to Lewis discloses an apparatus comprising a base, a swinging leaf having a free edge and an opposite heel edge, a swinging anchoring member hingedly connecting a base with the leaf at a point on the latter between the edges and adjacent to the heel edge and means connected with the heel edge of the leaf for swinging the latter.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,253,858 to Lucas et al. discloses an automatic page turning block comprising a plurality of stiff sheets of like sides stacked in staggered formation, the rear margin of each but the top sheet protruding to the back from under the overlying sheet. A pocket has a bottom, rear and top wall. The top wall extends short of the back edge of the top sheet of the plurality of sheets. When the plurality of sheets are inserted in the stacked staggered formation into the pocket and the rear edge of the bottom sheet of the plurality of sheets substantially abuts against the rear wall. A flexible tape extends over and is attached upon the protruding rear margins of the sheets and upon a corresponding rear margin of the top one of the plurality of stiff sheets and folded back from the rear margin of the top sheet onto and attached upon the top wall so that the sheets will be successively swung up when the stacked plurality of sheets are pulled out from the pocket. A guide means extends from the bottom wall and confines the bottom one of the plurality of sheets bottomwise and transversely went the plurality of sheets are pulled out from the pocket.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,595,972 to Naurison discloses a device including a pair of substantially coextensive members fixed in relation to each other. A slide is movable between the members. A strip extends between and is secured to the slide and a selected one of the members and a plurality of leaves. The leaves when the slide is positioned substantially wholly between the members are superimposed one upon the other and then positioned between the slide and the selected number. The leaves when the slide is moved out from a positioned substantially wholly between the members is rotated in spaced radial relationship to a positioned substantially on top of the selected member.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,008,248 to Steinthal discloses a sample swatch display book comprising front and back covers to form retaining material. An accordion pleated sheet of flexible material extending between and secured at opposite ends to the front and back covers respectively. The sheet contains a plurality of hinge folds form expandable traverse pleats. Each pleat has an inside hinge fold and a pair of leaves extending from the hinge fold towards respective outside hinge folds integrally connected the pleat to adjacent flanking pleats. One leaf of each pleat is nearer to the front cover than the other leaf of the pleat in close position of the book. Reinforcing strips of rigid material are secured to and line the leaves respectively of the pleats to impart form retaining rigidity to the leaves between hinge folds. A plurality of sample backing sheets. A different sample swatch is secured flat to each of the backing sheets. The backing sheets are large enough to support substantially the entire area of the swatches. The covers are large enough to cover substantially the entire area of the backing sheets in the closed position of the book. Snap fasteners means are near one end of each backing sheet. Snap fastener means are secured to each of those reinforcing strips which are secured to the nearer leaves of the pleats and constitute mates to the snap fastener means on the corresponding backing sheet. Each backing sheet has its snap fastener means releasably engaging the snap fastener means on the corresponding reinforcing strip with the backing sheet flat against the reinforcing strip and with the sample swatch disposed on the side of the backing sheet facing towards the front cover in close position of the book. The leaves in between the nearer leaves are free from attachments to swatch backing sheets and the fastener means on each backing sheet and on the corresponding reinforcing strip being protectively sandwiched in close position of the book between a pair of the in between strip reinforcing leaves located on opposite sides of and adjacent to the leaf supporting the latter backing sheet and the latter reinforcing strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,270 to Crowell, et al. discloses a multi-page folder having a staggered array of interleaved pages successively flipped by manual actuation of a drawstrip. The folder includes a back cover panel bounded by a right fold line joining it to an overlying contiguous base panel. A central slot formed near the fold line joins the back panel and the base panel. A distal segmented tab extends from the base panel away from the right fold line. A plurality of substantially parallel fold lines traverses and subdivides the tab into plural segments. An elongated drawstrip joins the last tab segment most remote from the right fold line and extends between the back cover panel and the base panel through the central slot. Longitudinally movable from a retracted position substantially flattening the segmented tab to an extended position protruding through the central slot beyond the right fold line and curling the segmented tab under the base panel toward the slot. The individual separate pages are respectively secured to individual segments of the segmented tab and interleaved in staggered array protruding alternately toward opposite sides of the elongated drawstrip and the segmented tab, whereby progressive movement of the drawstrip from its retracted position towards its extended position causes progressive curling movement of the segmented tab, successively flipping over the individual staggered interleaved pages, while at all times displaying to view at least one full page and a substantial area of an underlying staggered page, thereby changing only part of the indicia displayed during each successive stage of the page-flipping operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,453 to Morgan discloses a invention relating to a folding card that displays one picture when closed and another picture when opened, comprising three hinged panels which form a front cover, a rear cover and an inside panel. Positioned partially in upper and lower channels formed by flanges hinged to the inside cover are a stationary picture unit and a movable picture unit. The picture units are each made of two subunits formed with slots and strips which are fitted together with the strips partially overlapping. The two picture units are mated together, and an extension of the moving picture unit is attached to the front cover. When the assembled picture card is in a closed position, the strips of the movable unit are displayed; when opened, the extension pulls the movable picture unit to the left causing its strips to smoothly slide behind the now displayed strips of the stationary unit as a result of the overlapping construction.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,461 to Hinsberg discloses an image positioning device including surface elements having front and back sides and images on the front and/or the back sides. An end of a first surface element and a front side of a second surface element are turnably coupled along a first axis of rotation and an end of the second surface element and a front side of a third surface element are turnably coupled along a second axis of rotation. The first and second rotational axes are approximately parallel with one another. Successive flipping of the surface elements animates the images.
United States Patent Application 2011/0047839 to Ross, et al. discloses a method for manufacturing a pop-up article from one or more continuous webs of material using an inline printing press. The article comprises a curved or generally semi-cylindrical pop-up device enclosed within a base piece, such that when the base piece is in a closed position, the pop-up device lies flat therein, but when the base piece is moved to an open position, the pop-up device is forced outwardly from the base piece to form a curved or generally semi-cylindrical shape. The method comprises processing a first web or ribbon to define a base piece having a front and back cover, processing a second web or ribbon to define a pop-up device, separating the pop-up device from the second web or ribbon, adhering a tab of the pop-up device to the front cover, adhering a front flap of the pop-up device to the rear cover, and separating the article from the first web or ribbon.
Although the aforementioned prior art have contributed to the development of the art of binding printed materials, none of these prior art patents have solved the needs of this art.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved method for producing unique specialty printing pieces.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method for producing a fanning effect for multi-page printed material.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved method that provides a product that is cost effectively produce.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the present invention. These objects should be construed as being merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be obtained by modifying the invention within the scope of the invention. Accordingly other objects in a full understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention, the detailed description describing the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.